Joseph Dunmore recently created the Gromit we have in our Bristol store, Nezahualcoyotl. He shares with us his experience and the inspiration behind his colourful Aztec design.
When i heard about the Gromit Unleashed project i was finishing a 2m x 3m oil painting for a film project i’ve been working on over the last two years. I was painting a small element in the painting that i had nicknamed the Aztec Space Invader, because, well, it looked like a space invader and i was putting a Aztec inspired design and patterning on it. So, when i heard about the Gromit project, i immediately thought i’d like to create a funky colourful Aztec one.
In my formative years as a budding artist i drew great inspiration from ancient and indigenous art from all over world, and one my favourites was the pre-Colombian art of Latin America, from the graphic textiles and adornments of the Mapuches, the enigmatic creations and magical architecture of the Incas, the giant mysterious sculpted heads of the Olmecs ,the organic, strangely modern art of the Mayas, and the glorious, sometimes dark and always beautifully aesthetic epic creations of the Aztecs. So, i thought Gromit Unleashed would a great opportunity to pay homage to the art that had literally stolen my heart.
I used online resources, and a couple of library books to revisit the art of the Aztecs which i had previously admired in museums around the world, and was once again amazed by it’s beauty, ambition, power, craftsmanship, and it’s surprisingly contemporary feel. Freshly inspired, i set about sketching the design which i coloured in Photoshop. The final design was a hybrid of Aztec and other regional indigenous art and my own style. I called it Nezahaulcoyotl after the 15th century philosopher/warrior/architect/poet/ruler of Texcoco. The name of this heroic historic all-rounder means ‘Coyote who Fasts’ in the regional Nahuatl tongue. Coyote. Gromit. Dog. There was a tenuous link there, but it seemed like a fitting name, and in fact it was a curious nugget of information that sold it to me. According to sources from the 16th Century, Nezahaulcoyotl had a spiritual experience of the “Unknown, Unknowable Lord of Everywhere” to whom he built an empty temple in which no blood sacrifices of any kind where able to take place, something that went against most of the contemporary religious practices.
The design was selected and throughout May i went down to the designated Artists Painting Space at Temple Meads. There was a tangible air of enthusiasm, creativity and communal support between the artists and designers working there, which i believed helped everyone to create high-quality pieces of art with great integrity and individuality.
The first challenge of all Gromit artist was to apply a 2-D design to a 3-D object. Having had the experience of painting a gorilla in the 2011 Wow! Gorillas project i began confidently translating the drawing from paper to Gromit, using the submitted design more as a guide that a definitive plan. First i sketched the line with a burnt sienna coloured pencil before painting a finalized drawing with watered down acrylic paint of the same colour. Then, i applied a wash to the whole Gromit to give it a stony, terracotta kind of feel and a coloured base from which i could pull lighter colours out or sink dark colours in. The next stage, was the methodical and meditative process of building up a feast of colour, ranging from the earthy tones and sublime blues and greens typical to the Aztecs to the more brightly coloured pigments of a more modern palette.
After 100+ hours of painting at all kinds of angles i finished Nezahualcoyotl on the night before the deadline, pretty good going by any Artist’s standards. I was really pleased with the result, it had captured the essence of my original idea and expanded it to adorn Bristols’ most famous four-legged cultural ambassador and give him a unique and celebratory look befitting of an Aztec canine god! I hope those who see him receive some of the enjoyment i had painting it and receive some of the inspiration i feel when i look at the amazing artistry of past civilisations.
On a personal level, it has been a great privilege to work on a project like this, which beyond the obvious cool and exciting union of the artistic talents of a rich pool of artists, illustrators and designers with that of the one of Bristol most admired and successful creative companies, Aardman, has also has been seamlessly managed by the people at The Grand Appeal. In essence, this celebration of creativity, the kind for which Bristol is becoming world renowned, is to support and expand facilities at the ground-breaking Bristol Children’s Hospital, and judging from what i’ve seen the project is not only an artistic success but will also be a great financial success for the charity.
Nezahualcoyotol will be in our Bristol store until 8th September. For more information on the Gromit Unleashed project go to www.gromitunleashed.org.uk